Advocating for Franklin Park’s White Stadium
The City of Boston and Boston’s Unity Soccer Partners LLC recently unveiled a proposal for the expansion and renovation of White Stadium, without proper environmental review or community process. However, this proposal has alarmed many community members, around the park and city-wide, and is not in the best interest of this important and historic park, the environment or the communities it serves.
We support a full renovation and redevelopment of White Stadium to the benefit of all Boston Public School student-athletes, the communities surrounding Franklin Park and all park users.
Click here for answers to several frequently-asked questions about White Stadium, Franklin Park and the redevelopment proposal.
The redevelopment, as proposed by the investors, should not move forward for two primary reasons:
1) Franklin Park is a protected open space and is protected by the Public Land and Protection Act, Article 97. This proposal should not move forward until a complete article 97 process has occurred.
2) The process for redeveloping and expanding White Stadium has been rushed and has not provided the community with enough time to review and comment on the proposal.
Comment Letters (click to open)
February 2, 2024: Letter to Boston Parks and Recreation Commission from Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR
January 31, 2024: Comment Letter to BPDA
January 29, 2024: Letter to Boston Parks and Recreation Commission from Karen Mauney-Brodek
January 23, 2024: Letter to Boston Landmarks Commission from Karen Mauney-Brodek
January 23, 2024: Letter to Boston Landmarks Commission from Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR
January 18, 2024: Letter to BPDA Board of Directors from Karen Mauney-Brodek
Recent Press (click to open)
May 10, 2024: Why Michelle Wu’s White Stadium plan is good for student athletes | The Boston Globe
May 8, 2024: City, architects ready to unveil White Stadium design changes to West Grandstand and Grove | Dorchester Reporter
May 2, 2024: How does a city renovate, and use wisely, a landmark facility in a landmark park? | Dorchester Reporter
April 28, 2024: Advocates will continue lawsuit against White Stadium renovation | Boston.com
April 26, 2024: Why Mayor Wu’s plans for White Stadium have prompted a lawsuit | GBH News
April 24, 2024: Wu’s fumble on White Stadium renovation | The Boston Globe
April 24,2024: ‘Defenders’ press White Stadium legal challenge | Dorchester Reporter
April 23, 2024: Lawsuit over White Stadium in Boston’s Franklin Park moves forward | Boston Business Journal
April 23, 2024: Opponents of White Stadium renovation plans double down on lawsuit | WCVB
April 23, 2024: Emerald Necklace Conservancy, residents vow to continue legal fight against White Stadium soccer makeover | Universal Hub
April 23, 2024: Lawsuit over Boston stadium renovation goes forward after judge denies restraining order | MassLive
April 23, 2024: Franklin Park-area residents persist in lawsuit against White Stadium development | GBH
April 23, 2024: Neighbors vow to keep fighting Boston, pro soccer team’s plans for White Stadium redevelopment | Boston Herald
April 23, 2024: Lawsuit over White Stadium project moving forward, plaintiffs say | The Boston Globe
April 23, 2024: Franklin Park Defenders preparing next steps in lawsuit against the city, mayor | MASSterList
April 4, 2024: Mayor wants her stadium; majority says “no thanks” | Boston Bulletin
April 4, 2024: Judge rules in favor of White Stadium renovation | The Bay State Banner
Older Press (click to open)
April 3, 2024: Letter to the Editor: Park coalition’s stadium survey ‘falsely’ optimistic | Dorchester Reporter
April 3, 2024: Editorial: White Stadium plan has merit and deserves a fair hearing | Dorchester Reporter
April 1, 2024: Privatization of Our Parks Is A Real Danger | Olmsted Network
March 30, 2024: White Stadium should be available to BPS football all season long | The Boston Globe
March 28, 2024: The White Stadium saga: And the crowd goes, ‘Hmm’ | The Boston Globe
March 27, 2024: Opponents vent at contentious stadium ‘listening’ session | Dorchester Reporter
March 22, 2024: Court ruling allows White Stadium renovation project to proceed | The Boston Globe
March 22, 2024: Judge rules in favor of White Stadium renovation, pro soccer team plan | Dorchester Reporter
March 22, 2024: Judge denies request for injunction against White Stadium renovation project | GBH
March 22, 2024: Boston, professional women’s soccer team win judge’s approval for White Stadium renovation | The Boston Herald
March 19, 2024: Boston’s students deserve a renovated White Stadium | The Boston Globe
March 18, 2024: Is Mayor Wu’s plan for White Stadium really for the kids? | The Boston Globe
March 6, 2024: Future of White Stadium hangs in balance as court weighs lawsuit | WGBH
March 6, 2024: Boston judge hears arguments to halt renovation of White Stadium | The Boston Globe
March 6, 2024: Franklin Park Advocates Praise Judge’s Pause of a Private White Stadium | Caught in Dot
March 1, 2024: Emerald Necklace Conservancy Files Suit To Stop Redevelopment of White Stadium | The Boston Sun
February 29, 2024: Commentary: Preserving Olmsted’s intent should be central to Franklin Park, stadium review | Dorchester Reporter
February 29, 2024: Conservancy group and residents filed suit to halt White Stadium plan | WBUR “The Common” Podcast
February 29, 2024: Lawsuit contends White Stadium deal illegal | Boston Bulletin
February 21, 2024: New lawsuit challenges White Stadium development proposal | The Boston Globe
February 21, 2024: Plans to turn White Stadium into a soccer palace has sparked a huge controversy — and a lawsuit | The Boston Globe
February 21, 2024: Episode of “An Evening with the Emancipator” | Boston Neighborhood Network
Lack of Coordination and Unified Thoughtful Vision for Franklin Park
While White Stadium was not an original part of Olmsted’s design for Boston’s largest park, it is an essential recreational facility used by Boston Public Schools. Nevertheless, the stadium has been neglected for decades and needs investment. The recently completed (and award-winning) Franklin Park Action Plan did not conceive, discuss or engage in public conversations about options for a major expansion, change in use, rezoning or incorporation of a major league women’s soccer team.
Boston’s Emerald Necklace is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Boston Landmark, and was designed by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Franklin Park is by far the largest park in Boston, but has already lost a third of the original public and free open space over the decades, including the land for Shattuck Hospital, the Franklin Park Zoo, the William J. Devine Golf Course, and other changes. It serves some of the most important communities in Boston, including Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, all of which are considered “Environmental Justice Communities” with a significant population of BIPOC residents. Franklin Park is considered by many to be the cultural park center for many of Boston’s communities of color, as the location of annual Juneteenth celebrations, BAMS Fest, the Caribbean Festival and much more.
The details of the proposal and process are concerning. There has been a lack of procedure around public process and environmental review including:
KEY POINT: This proposal seeks to privatize and remove free use and enjoyment of a public treasure. Boston is fortunate that Franklin Park is one of only four of Olmsted’s famous country parks, which serve as seminal work in the field of landscape architecture. The hasty review and proposed changes to such a landscape will completely alter the design and disregard the protections afforded to a designated landmark.
When White Stadium was constructed in the 1940s using the City’s George Robert White Fund, the land became a separate parcel from the park on paper, but the parcel includes many recreational facilities and greenspaces/parkland used by the park-going public. The proposed redesign would make sections of what has been public recreational space private. Enacted in 1972, today the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s Article 97 protects public parkland and prohibits the often attempted use of “free” public park space for private or other public but non-recreational purposes.
Legal Updates
Tuesday, February 20, 2024: Concerned community members and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy filed a complaint regarding concerns about the proposed redevelopment of White Stadium in Franklin Park.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024: A Suffolk County Superior Court judge – Judge Sarah W. Ellis – postponed for two weeks any action on the City of Boston’s and Boston Unity Soccer Partners’ plans to redevelop and privatize White Stadium in Franklin Park.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs (numerous community members and the Conservancy) are seeking a preliminary injunction to review the City’s rush to demolish the stadium, which would displace Boston Public Schools student-athletes and community events.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024: The plaintiffs must submit a response to the hearing by 4:00PM.
Friday, March 15, 2024: The defendants (The City of Boston) must submit a response to the hearing by 4:00PM.
Friday, March 22, 2024: Judge Sarah Ellis did not grant the motion—brought by a group of citizen plaintiffs and the Conservancy—aimed to stop the City from moving forward with its demolition of half of White Stadium and its negotiations with the team of investors until two key legal questions could be answered.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024: The group of community advocates known as the Franklin Park Defenders and the Conservancy held a press conference at White Stadium announcing that they will be continuing the lawsuit, including next steps of legal discovery to provide key facts of the proposed lease and stadium redevelopment plan that are important to the public. The group continues to advocate for a community-first renovation of White Stadium for all who use it—Boston Public Schools athletes, neighbors and parkgoers from all over the city.
“…Private parks can never be used by the mass of the people in any country nor by any considerable number even of the rich, except by the favor of a few, and in dependence on them.”
– Frederick Law Olmsted
“The purpose of a park, Olmsted opined, was to create ‘a ground to which people may easily go after their day’s work is done, and where they may stroll for an hour, seeing, hearing, and feeling nothing of the bustle and jar of the streets.’ He railed at politicians and public officials who viewed parks as simply places to build. ‘The very ‘reason for being’ of the park,, Olmsted said, is ‘the opportunity for pleasurable and soothing relief from building.’”
– Anne Neal Petri, President and CEO of Olmsted Network, in The Boston Globe, December 2023
